1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to physical motion state evaluation apparatuses for use in dance-type music games and rehabilitation support training in which evaluation is performed on the motion of parts of the human body in response to physical motion state instructions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, many players play music games such as dance music games and music play games in accordance with music and visual images on screens of computer displays. Herein, the players perform dance steps in response to instructions given from computer game devices, or they play music controllers imitating drums, guitars and keyboards to play music performance in response to instructions given from computer game devices. Thus, the computer game devices perform evaluation on the player""s dance steps or music performance in comparison with instructed timings.
Conventional dance music games are designed such that the players merely step on or depress mechanical switches with their feet in synchronization with music. Conventional music play games are designed such that the players merely touch or press switches on the music controllers (e.g., drum pads, guitar-like controllers and keys of keyboards) with their hands (or fingers). Until now, no music games are provided to allow the players using both hands and feet simultaneously.
Particularly, the dance music games allow the players to use their feet only, so the players could not enjoy performing dance steps to demonstrate their advanced skills in dancing. Because conventional dance music games are basically designed to suit to beginner""s levels in dancing, even if the players make clumsy motions in dancing, it may be possible for such players to obtain high scores in the evaluation of their dancing abilities. Some players attempt to imitate movements of famous singers who sing songs with designed movements on television programs, for example. However, those players are not always satisfied with conventional dance music games that are not designed to use player""s motions of hands (or fingers) as evaluation subjects. Because the dance music games merely provide touch sensors using mechanical switches to sense the dance steps of the players, it is difficult to perform precise evaluation on the free physical motions of the players, so the players would have feelings of wrongness (or dissatisfaction) in playing the dance music games.
In the case of physical (training) therapy in rehabilitation, for example, persons (e.g., aged persons, handicapped persons, or persons after illness or injuries) may be able to restore physical abilities by moving parts of their bodies. It may be desirable that machines or devices for use in rehabilitation or medical exercises are designed to cope with the free hand motions of the aforementioned persons.
It is an object of the invention to provide a physical motion state evaluation apparatus that reflects various types of motions such as hand motions and foot motions (or kicking motions), which cannot be precisely detected by mechanical sensors, on evaluation results for player""s physical motion states.
A physical motion state evaluation apparatus is configured by a foot switch unit for detecting user""s step motions, physical motion state detectors for detecting motions of prescribed parts (e.g., hands, foot) of a user""s body, a display and a musical tone generator. Herein, each of the physical motion state detector is configured by a projection unit for projecting optical beams along optical axes and a receiver unit for receiving the optical beams respectively, so that the receiver unit detects a shutoff event (or blocking event) in which the prescribed part of the user""s body shuts off (or blocks) at least one of the optical beams. For example, the physical motion state detectors detect user""s hand motions in which the user""s left and/or right hand moves to upward, forward, backward, left and right positions respectively, or the physical motion state detector detects a user""s kick motion in which the user raises his/her foot forward in kicking.
Physical motion state instructions, which are displayed on a screen of the display, request a user to move the prescribed parts of the user""s body to instructed positions at instruction timings respectively, so that the physical motion state detectors provide detection timings at which the prescribed parts of the user""s body are precisely moved to the instructed positions in conformity with the instruction timings. Based on deviation values between the instruction timings and detection timings, the apparatus produces evaluation results on user""s physical motion states in comparison with the physical motion state instructions.
The evaluation results can be visually presented on the screen of the display as scores being marked for the user""s physical motion states. Alternatively, the evaluation results can be subjected to auditory presentation in which the musical tone generator sequentially generates musical tones corresponding to constituent notes of a melody in response to the detection timings that belong to tone generation ranges of the instruction timings. Thus, the user is able to recognize errors in his/her physical motion states by listening to whether the melody is played incorrectly.